Thursday Friend and occasional guest blogger Carl Rosin alerted me to a heartfelt Commonweal article by an English professor describing how literature helped her confront and work through childhood abuse. Cassandra Nelson’s difficult history leads to some remarkable insights into trigger warnings, which she opposes. Nelson’s view on trigger warnings is pretty much my own […]
Tag Archives: William Shakespeare
Lit as a Survival Toolkit
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Bluest Eye, Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Bruno Bettelheim, childhood trauma, Dante, Inferno, Junot Diaz, King Lear, sexual abuse, sexual assault, Toni Morrison Comments closed
Which Shakespeare Character Is Trump?
Wednesday It’s satisfying to see national pundits take a page out of Better Living through Beowulf and turn to the classics to understand Donald Trump. Okay, so NeverTrumper conservative Bret Stephens has probably never read this blog, but we both recognize how literature deepens our understanding of the world, including American politics. I particularly appreciate […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aristophanes, Donald Trump, Henry IV Part I, Henry IV Part II, Lysistrata, Macbeth, Nikolai Gogol, Othello, Richard III Comments closed
Trump’s Taming of the GOP
Thursday Political scientists will debate for years how Donald J. Trump took over and “Trumpified” the modern Republican party. Multiple explanations exist, including George Packer’s theory that Trump represents a longtime rot within the GOP (I blogged about this on Monday). Nevertheless, it still boggles the mind that a disreputable realtor to whom no one […]
Read to Resist: An Introduction
Thursday I share today the introduction to my upcoming book, which is still in draft form and whose title I keep changing. Latest title: Read to Resist: Classic Lit Provides Tools for Battling Trump and Trumpism. I’m still not entirely satisfied with that and so will keep tinkering. In any event, here’s my first attempt […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Alexander Pope, Beowulf, Donald Trump, Dunciad, Go Set a Watchman, H. G. Wells, Harper Lee, Invisible Man, John Milton, Leo Tolstoy, Othello, Paradise Lost, To Kill a Mockingbird, Trump resistance, War and Peace Comments closed
Teaching Lit in Ljubljana
I share my experiences teaching Shakespeare and post-colonial literature in Slovenia.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood, Midsummer Night's Dream, Prešeren (France), Romeo and Juliet, travel abroad Comments closed
An Incel Killer and an English Major
Maura Binkley was an English major killed by an incel killer in a Tallahassee yoga studio. Her department chair turned to Shakespeare in his grief.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Hamlet, King Lear, Maura Binkley, Othello, Tallahassee yoga killing Comments closed
Blackburn Unsexes Herself over Guns
Tennessee Senator-elect Marsha Blackburn’s insensitivity towards gun victims invites comparisons with Lady Macbeth.
Sen. Flake Is No Hamlet
Comparisons of Sen. Flake to Hamlet over the Brett Kavanaugh is an insult to Hamlet.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Hollow Men", Brett Kavanaugh hearing, Hamlet, Jeff Flake, Republican moderates, T. S. Eliot Comments closed
Baldwin on Making Education Relevant
Baldwin’s “Essays to Teachers” reminds them of what education should really be about.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Invisible Man, James Baldwin, Julius Caesar Ralph Ellison, Letter to Teachers, racism, Terrorism Comments closed
